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DETAILS of the National Railway Museum’s planned £50 million refurbishment and expansion have emerged. The York museum is busy fine-tuning a seven-year masterplan aimed at reinforcing its place as one of Britain’s leading tourist attractions. The blueprint is based around closing and diverting Leeman Road, which currently divides the museum in two, leaving both sides…

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THE Moseley Railway Trust has confirmed details of the first guest locomotive for its Tracks to the Trenches 2018 event at the Apedale Valley Light Railway. The event, which will take place from Friday, July 13 to Sunday, July 15, is the third in a series held to mark the centenary of the First World…

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By Geoff Courtney Thieves who broke into a railway museum in the Australian capital of Canberra and stole priceless parts from a history-making 140-year-old UK-built locomotive returned two days later to take more items after identifying them during their first break-in. The thefts from the closed-down Canberra Railway Museum were discovered by shocked volunteers on…

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DAVE Knowling, believed to be Britain’s longest serving steam engine driver, had a fitting tribute paid to him by family and friends by being taken to his final resting place down the railway that he loved and worked so hard to help build. The funeral service for popular South Devon Railway stalwart Dave, who died…

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SOUTH Devon may get a fourth privately-run standard gauge railway, after revivalist group Heath Rail Link was given permission by Network Rail to lease the moribund Newton Abbot to Heathfield line. The group wants to see the line reopened for use by commuter traffic as well as tourists. It aims to open a park-and-ride system…

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By Phil Marsh Eastleigh Works has been sold for a reported £20.6 million. The works was opened by the LSWR in 1909 and operationally closed in 2006 by the then operator Alstom. The firm had purchased Eastleigh, Wolverton and Springburn Works to rectify their new train fleets and once the work was done, they had…

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AN APPEAL to help recreate the 50th anniversary of the first public train on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway has been launched. Another £40,000 is needed to complete the overhaul of Ivatt 2-6-2T No. 41241 so that it will be ready for the line’s eight-day Golden Jubilee celebrations from June 24-July 1. As reported…

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By Hugh Dougherty ScotRail says that its long-serving Class 314 EMUs are to be withdrawn during 2018 as its new, Hitachi-built, Class 385 trains come into service on the Cathcart Circle, Newton and Neilston routes. However, train owner Angel Trains said that it will lay a unit aside for preservation. The pending departure of the…

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EXCLUSIVE BY Geoff Courtney More than 55,000 passengers were carried by Mail Rail – London’s newest and one of its most innovate visitor attractions – in its first four months, an achievement that has been hailed as “amazing” by its interim director. The railway, based on a 2ft gauge subterranean line that was nicknamed ‘London’s…

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EXCLUSIVE By Geoff Courtney A triple whammy of benefits to the local community has been released by the Rother Valley Railway (RVR) as talks continue with landowners on bridging a two-mile gap between the eastern end of the line and the western extremity of the nearby Kent & East Sussex Railway. The RVR commissioned an…

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